Children who are deaf or hard of hearing are at high risk for permanent speech and language delays. The services that a child receives and how much they are helped are highly variable depending on a number of factors.
These factors depend on what language is spoken in the home, the family’s insurance situation, family’s income level, and how easily the family can access the specialized speech language therapy that their child needs.
One way that people with special healthcare needs can get better access to specialized services is by using teletherapy provided by a licensed and certified therapist via a secure video connection to provide therapy to families from low income households. These families may have trouble accessing specialized speech language therapy to remote providers with the expertise that the child needs.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco https://health,org/conditions/hearing/loss are interested in learning how these disparities in access, language, and income can affect the hearing, speech, and language development of children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
The Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) https://www.pcori.org has awarded a contract with a budget proposed for $2,952,628 but still waiting for approval, to go to researchers at UCSF https://www.pcori.org to address the use of teletherapy for children with special hearing needs.
When the contract is finalized, Dylan Chan MD, PhD, Principal Investigator reports, “Parents as well as other stakeholders who participate in the care of children who are deaf or hard of hearing such as teachers, speech language therapists, hearing specialists, along with administrators of schools for deaf children, will work together to design a study to improve our system of care for these children.